Stars/Milky Way on Beach, no moon

[abica]

I am traveling to Sanibel Island, FL, from July 13-19. The moon will be

non-existent during that period, but I want to do some nighttime beach shots. I

will be using Fuji Acros in my Rolleicord Vb. I had originally envisioned some

sort of moonlight, and figured I would be able to keep exposures bracketed

between 5 and 20 minutes and make at least a couple printable negatives.

 

Now I am faced with slivers of moon or no moon at all. There will be very

little ambient light, as lights near the beach are prohibited.

 

Here are some thoughts/questions:

 

I envision compositions having:

 

~beach foreground, ocean, sky with stars

 

~angled beach with vegetation on one side and ocean on the other

 

~straight out from the beach is the milky way cloud...hmm...

 

Aperture? I would think I want to go as wide as possible while keeping decent

depth of field...which means f-8 I guess. What do you think? Should I go

smaller?

 

Could I go wide open for some shots of just the stars? (clear air and no

ambient light)

 

And then...I wonder if anyone could take a stab at exposure ranges for these

various scenes. I am thinking things will be in the 1-2 hour range for the

beach shots? What about the stars...do I have a chance of capturing the milky

way cloud and some stars without much trailing/movement?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sumo_kun]

If you want to actually see the Milky Way and not just the brightest stars in it, the you will need a tracking device which moves with the rotation of the Earth. Of course, if you do this, the beach will be blurry.

 

Slightly fast film like 400 or so would be helpful. Wide apertures are also good to get more light but DOF may be a problem depending on composition. I'd use an aperture of f4 or wider for the stars. With the beach in the shot, I think you might just have to put up with star trails. You could try multi-exposures?

[mad1]

Use the Widest angle Lens you have to minimize the DOF and use a f4 like apperture. But never expose more then 25 sec... Stars will be Motion blurred... probably 25ses is to much... try digital tests before :) I did that on the beach on a trip to costa rica w/ my 4x5 camera and lightning bolts were falling in the ocean but it was in B+W and I used like Tri-x 320 rated @ 800 But the airport X-Ray Destroyd the films at least, to be unprintable :(

[skygzr]

The sky ought to be good and dark to the south and west, but Fort Meyers is going to spoil things to the east. You'll get significant sky glow with a two hour exposure.

 

The sky moves 15 degrees per hour, so you'll get some obvious trails with anything over a minute or so. As was previously mentioned, you'll need to track the sky or use fast film, wide apertures and very short exposures.

 

I've had good success with a "barn door" tracker. It doesn't need to be as fancy as the one you see here: http://www.tucsonastronomy.org/barndoor.html

 

I think Sanibel is just far south enough to see the Southern Cross, but it sets around sunset this time of year. Good luck!

[abica]

Thanks for all the advice. In my own delusional mind, I have a plan that will yield excellent results.

 

Since I am using the Rollei Vb, I won't be switching lenses.

 

I am thinking about the neat things I could do out there with multiple exposures. Wide open shot to capture the stars as best I can, then tilt the camera down to throw in the beach/ocean, possibly masking out the sky with a card as if burning/dodging.

 

With no moon, the scene will be pretty dark.

 

I took a few shots from 1-2 minutes on Acros a few days ago out in the Ozarks on a river, but fog and a full moon pretty much make it useless as a direct comparison for my planned FL shots. Then again, getting a grip on scene brightness and exposures is always a good thing, at least I'll not be completely clueless.

 

No moon...really dark. I remember those conditions from a few years ago. I guess I could use a bit of flash from varying distances to get some interesting effects too.

 

And I think I will be doing several frames with trails. I have a feeling I have better chances of getting usable negs that way.

 

If nothing else, I will be spending hours stargazing over the ocean on moonless nights.

[danielgreenwood]

If you want some ambient light, you could always try taking photos an hour or so before

sunrise, where you just get a slight glow in the sky. I have tried this successfuly, but it is

important to take several shots over a period of time to get the desired affect, and you can

still see the stars (just).

 

Failing that, painting with light is also quite fun, so long as you are allowed to use a torch

on the beech. Ilford has a good article on it here: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/

applications/page.asp?n=56

 

Good luck!

[danielgreenwood]

Sorry.

 

http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=56